John Muir Wilderness, CA
“Patience is a pearl that is only found in the deep seas of affliction; and only grace can find it there, bring it to the surface, and adorn the neck of faith with it.”
Charles Spurgeon
For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,
so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to believe that God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours.”
John Piper
Yellowstone National Park
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
"Perseverance is more than endurance. It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen."
Oswald Chambers
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Yosemite National Park
“We will not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously He once waited upon us.”
C.H. Spurgeon
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
“Christian, when you are tempted to despair and resignation, remember key truths: I am owed nothing. Everything I have is a gift. God has given me so much in this life. And He has given me eternity with Him in Christ. My God is a gracious God. So I will praise Him.”
Owen Strachan
Eastern Sierra, CA
I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the LORD.
“Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ.”
John Piper
"Endurance in suffering doesn’t grab our attention, but it is a response so important that it will have value that lasts beyond death."
Ed Welch
Dead Horse Point State Park, UT
"Sometimes we have disappointments, but even these are really God’s appointments, as some day we shall find out."
J.R. Miller
“If God gives you a few more years, remember, it is not yours. Your time must honor God, your home must honor God, your activity must honor God, and everything you do must honor God.”
A.W. Tozer
"There is no body so broken that it cannot be offered to God as a living sacrifice, and there is no arm too feeble to wield the sword of the Spirit."
Betsy Childs Howard
Redwoods National Park
“May our passion for Christ always be greater than our passion for an easy life.”
Burk Parsons
Perseverance is not found after one or two afflictions, but after we are exercised and acquainted with them. Trees often shaken are deeply rooted.
Thomas Manton
“The Lord knows how to educate you up to such a point that you can endure, in years to come, what you could not endure today.”
Charles Spurgeon
“No one ever said at the end of his days; ‘I have read my bible too much, I have thought of God too much, I have prayed too much, I have been too careful with my soul.’”
J.C. Ryle
"Perseverance reveals the fruit of true, saving faith. It is both an exercise of genuine faith and evidence of it. Perseverance doesn’t save us, but it reveals that we have been saved."
Glenna Marshall
